"Are you fucking kidding me?!" The headmistress of the orphanage I live in yells at the man in black leather clothes. He has a jagged scar on his face over his right eye with a black eye patch covering it. His face is expressionless as he looks at miss Emily, the headmistress at LockWave Orphanage who is currently staring him down as if he wasn't two feet taller than her.

"Ma'am, the Academy Director has specifically asked for the boy. It would make things easier if you just handed him over." The man says, his voice was deep, almost what I would think a lion's voice would sound like if they could speak.

"Ryuu, why is miss Emily yelling at the big man? Did he do something wrong?" Anna, a small and frail six year old little girl whose parents died due to overdosing on drugs, asked as she looked up at me with her big brown eyes.

"I'm not sure, but we should go ahead and get you ready for bed. Okay? It's late," I tell her as she pouts but doesn't fight me. I take her hand and lead her to one of the rooms the younger kids sleep in and tuck her in. I read them a story before miss Emily opens the door and looks right at me.

"Ryuu, you're leaving, tonight. Pack whatever things you want to take with you." She says. The look on her face is cold. She has never liked me since I sort of look like the people she calls demons. My hair isn't moon silver, but that hasn't kept her from hitting me or refusing to let me eat full meals or even more than one meal a day.

"What? No, please don't go! We want him to stay!" All the kids six and under cry out and I sigh.

"Hey, it'll be okay. I'll come to visit when I can." If I can, I doubt I'll even be allowed to send a letter to them. I calm them down before I walk out their room and go into my own. I'm the only other adult in this place. No one has ever looked at me and said they wanted to adopt me. All because my hair is white and I've been told my eyes turn red when I'm pissed off.

I'm nineteen, where we live, you're an adult when you turn fifteen. I've tried to find work outside of the orphanage but no one wants to hire someone who looks like the very beings they fear. My white hair falls to my waist because I wasn't allowed to cut it, I don't have bangs even though it's something I have been wanting for years. I tried to give myself bangs with rusty scissors but they were so uneven I looked stupid.

I looked around my room, I didn't have much. Just a few clothes, most of them being pants since miss Emily said that me wearing shirts is useless. She has a whip and never fails to use it on me when she's pissed off. I don't feel pain, I never have, but I can still feel when the whip hits my back or my chest. I take all the abuse and Torture from her because I didn't want any of the kids to suffer.

I packed what clothes I had and a book I wrote in once a month. Once those were packed in the small sack I had, I took one last look at the small room with a small bed and wardrobe and then I walked out of the room and into the hallway that was now filled with kids aged from thirteen to five. They were all crying.

"We're going to miss you, Ryuu." Layla, the oldest thirteen year old girl said as she cried.

I smiled at her softly, "I'm going to miss you all too." I said and hugged each and every one of them. I'm like their big brother and the only adult that actually cares about them. With me gone, I can only imagine how hard their lives would become. I hope they grow up to be good people and they get adopted by people who will actually care about them and love them like they should be.

Miss Emily glared at me, her dark eyes cold and hateful. I quickly finished giving them hugs and saying my goodbyes before she grabbed my arm and dragged me outside. It was winter and there was snow on the cobblestone road in front of the old building that used to be a church until it was turned into an orphanage thirty years ago.

She threw me to the snow covered ground in front of the man I saw she was yelling at. He was bald and his face looked rough, as if he had been in one too many fights and just barely won them all. The black leather clothes he was wearing looked like clothes you would fight in and he has these black leather boots that took up half his leg.

I got to my feet and kept my head down, my dark violet colored eyes made people look at me with disgust. I was the only one in this entire town to have white hair and dark violet eyes. I was usually called a demon or a monster because of how I looked. I never really liked how I looked so I avoided mirrors as much as possible.

"Are you the one they call Ryuu?" The man asked and I nodded.

"Yes, sir." I say loud enough for him to hear.

"Last name?" His tone was cold and it sent shivers down my spine.

"No sir, I was never given one." I hoped I didn't sound as terrified as I felt. The man is very intimidating.

"Right. You're coming with me. You've been chosen to go to Berk Academy to learn how to ride and bond with a dragon and fight in the war against our enemies, the demons with moon silver hair. First, you will meet the Director then you must walk the bridge known as Death's Walk and once you get to the other side you will be a fully fledged student at the academy. Am I understood?" His tone wasn't as cold this time when he spoke.

"Understood, sir." Death's Walk, the bridge known for causing the deaths of twenty students per year at the one and only dragon riding academy based in Alton. The empire of the West with the empire of Kelin to the East.

Without another word the man turns and walks to a carriage I hadn't noticed was waiting ten feet away from the front steps of the orphanage. I followed him silently, not wanting to piss the very scary looking man I just met off. I'm not weak by any means, but I know I would lose miserably if I fought him. That was how strong he looked in the dim light of the lantern placed on the right side of the old building.

I looked back once and scanned the small grayish white church turned orphanage. The building was old and looked to be falling apart slowly. It was on a small hill on the outskirts of the town. I'm not going to miss this place, it was never a home to me, but I am going to miss the children that I treated like my younger siblings. I took a deep breath, turned back around with my back facing the building and walked up to the carriage and got in when the man opened the door and told me to get in.

From what I read about Alton, it would take two days to get there by carriage. It's the last week of August, so it is technically fall, but where we live, it's winter. The snow will probably take us longer to get to the academy.

Those two days pass in a blur and in silence. The man never says a word to me or even looks at me. I want to ask him questions but the words get caught in my throat. All the towns we stopped in, looked at me with fear and shock when I got out of the carriage. Everyone who saw me stared at me with either hatred or fear, or both.

I was never someone to be liked by others, mainly for my hair and eyes, but also because I liked being alone. Another reason I try to keep hidden, is because I can create shadows from my hands like it's nothing. I didn't know I could do this until I turned ten and I was so scared of being found out about breaking one of Miss Emily's favorite vases by accident.

I panicked and tried to hide and suddenly darkness shrouded me like a blanket. I had always been afraid of the dark, because she would put me in a closet if I even so much as whimpered when hitting me. Not feeling pain means nothing when you can still break bones and bleed.

When the carriage stopped at a stone wall with an iron gate, the guards there checked the carriage before letting it through and glared at me when they saw me. I tried to hide, to keep myself hidden. I don't like how I look and no one has ever told me any different other than the kids in the orphanage. They were the only ones who thought I looked cool.

Once we were through the gate, the man who has yet to tell me his name, looked at me. "The Director will tell you everything you need to know when you meet him, he will also tell you why you're here. Because the Director picked you specifically you will not be required to pay anything while you attend the academy. Everything for you is free, use it wisely."

"Yes, sir," I'm more than a little shocked. I'm an orphan and not anyone special, so why does the Director want me? Why am I the one he has chosen out of the thousands of potential students for the academy to give a free ride to? It all sounds too good to be true, I don't trust it, I don't trust anything.

The carriage stops in front of a very large stone building that looks like a mansion and there's a man who looks to be in his forties at least standing with a smile that could fool anyone if they didn't know the hidden agenda behind it. He was wearing a tan coat, dark blue slacks, black dress shoes and he had this necktie that had a dragon in the center of a sun on it.

The man in black gets out first and then nods for me to get out. I do so without hesitation. The man I assume is the Director greeted me as the man and I walked up to him. I felt uncomfortable, but I kept my anxiety hidden. I never felt comfortable around men, because of an incident I'd rather not remember, especially not now.

"Welcome to Berk Academy, young Ryuu."